'He's coming at us,' Colin warned. 'Just go left.'

Vijay stepped on the accelerator and the car lurched forward as he swerved sharply into the main road.

'Shit!'

A black Mercedes was bearing down upon them, from the right, while another black Ford Endeavour raced towards them from the opposite direction.

'This isn't good.' Colin shook his head. 'These guys are coordinating this chase. They've been with us for a while. That Merc was at the toll plaza.'

Vijay nodded, his eyes glued to the road as he weaved through the meagre traffic on the road. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror showed the two Fords, close behind, weaving through the traffic at high speed. The second Ford had made a U-turn and joined the one that had been chasing them so far.

Where was the Mercedes?

Suddenly, the traffic thinned out to almost nothing and Vijay pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The sudden rush of power to the engine propelled the car forward, but the near absence of traffic had given the Fords the opportunity to speed up as well.

A roundabout came into view up ahead.

Colin quizzed, 'You aren't going to slow down?'

Vijay nodded grimly. 'I think this car can take that turn at high speed. At least it will do a better job than the Fords. They are top heavy and I don't think they'll dare try.'

Colin grinned. 'This is more like it. I prefer this welcome to the one you gave me at the airport. This is dangerous.'

Vijay smiled despite himself. The adrenalin rush felt good, he had to admit. He forced himself to focus on their objective. They had to get rid of their pursuers. Whoever they were!

They gained on the roundabout, the Fords still at the same distance behind them. It looked like Vijay's plan was going to work. The roundabout was now just metres ahead of them and Vijay braced himself to handle the car as it rounded the bend.

Suddenly, he caught a flash of black out of the corner of his eye.

The black Mercedes!

The driver obviously had swung into the service road on the right, and had moved in parallel with the BMW, matching their speed. Vijay had been so intent on losing the Fords that he hadn't noticed the Mercedes racing in the same direction.

It reached the roundabout before them and slowed down as it swung around the roundabout and directly into the path of the BMW.

'Merc!' Colin noticed the car now.

Vijay didn't have an option. He slammed the brakes and swerved to the left in one action, to avoid crashing into the other car. The BMW's tyres screeched and the car wobbled on its suspension as they narrowly missed the Mercedes and screeched to a halt.

Barely had the car stopped than there was a loud crash, with the BMW being pitched forward violently; one of the Fords had smashed into the car.

The airbags ballooned, as Vijay and Colin were thrown forward with the force of the impact.

'Are you okay?' Colin enquired tremulously of Vijay.

'I think so,' Vijay grunted. 'Just badly shaken.'

Footsteps approached and they perceived five men standing outside the car. A thrill coursed through Colin as he realised that each one carried a 9mm mini UZI sub machine gun, capable of firing 1,700 rounds per minute in closed bolt position.

A few curious bystanders had gathered around, attracted by the accident, but scattered immediately when they saw the weapons. Two cars passed, slowing to observe the scene, but they, too, speeded up when they saw the guns.

Now, there were just the two friends and the armed men.

One of the men, apparently the leader of the group, barked orders in a strange language, his voice harsh and grating. The door of the BMW was wrenched open and Vijay and Colin dragged out. They didn't offer any resistance. It would have been foolish under the circumstances.

Vijay glanced at the Ford that had smashed into his car. The SUV was a wreck but the driver was climbing out, unhurt,with just a limp.

The two friends were rounded up and taken to the second Ford and dumped in the back, their hands bound behind their backs.

Outside, they saw one of the men get behind the wheel of the BMW. It started smoothly and after some instructions from the leader, the man drove the car away. The leader and another man got into the Mercedes and the other two settled into the remaining Ford, after blindfolding their captives.

In a few minutes, the convoy was driving towards the highway again, leaving the wrecked Ford behind.

Vijay and Colin sat helplessly in the SUV. They were prisoners but who were their captors? And why had they been taken captive?

5.

244 BC.

The Mauryan Empire, Ancient India Surasen wiped the sweat from his brow. For the past three hours, they had cut a path through the jungle. It was the monsoon season and the humidity was stifling. Flies and mosquitoes buzzed around his ears. Surasen was breathing hard as the path sloped gently upwards.

The forest was still. To Surasen it seemed that the jungle and its inhabitants were holding their breath, waiting to discover what would happen when he reached the end of his journey.

He was aware that the forest had grown increasingly dense in the last few hours.

'There,' the jungle-dweller, who was leading them, said suddenly, as he pointed to the fronds and the closely packed trees.

Surasen held up his hand to halt the progress of the soldiers who accompanied him and they crowded around him in a tight knot.

'Stay here. Wait for me.'

'My lord.' The commander of the troops was hesitant. 'Is it safe to go on by yourself?'

Surasen shook his head firmly. 'I will be quite safe by myself. But, if I don't return in one nadi you may come after me.'

With these words he stepped forward and moved aside the curtain of leaves and creepers, revealing a hidden gully that sloped gently downwards, disappearing into the thick foliage and undergrowth. He took a deep breath and started down the gully, the thickly clustered creepers closing in behind him, concealing him from the others.

He drew his sword and slowly moved forward, squeezing through the trees and treading on a thick carpet of dead and fallen leaves that covered the floor of the forest. It was darker here than the rest of the forest. Looking up he discerned the reason for the gloom. Through the trees loomed the outline of a rocky outcrop, perhaps a small hill, which cast its shadow over this part of the jungle.

The path continued till it reached the base of the hill and disappeared behind a rock face that stretched for sixty feet around the foot of the hill.

Surasen approached the hill and hesitated; he stood before the crevice between the rock face and the hill. It was just wide enough for a man to squeeze through sideways, and led into a yawning black opening.

Stooping, he peered into the opening but nothing was visible in the inky blackness that stretched before him.

Clutching his sword tight, he stepped into the darkness, using the sword and his free hand to guide his path. As far as he could perceive, he was in a narrow passage, barely wider than the breadth of his shoulders. Slowly, he made his way through the passage, trying to ignore the claustrophobic feeling that was washing over him; and fending off the thought that he was walking through the base of the hill, with tons of rock sitting above him.

After a while, the walls of the passage abruptly vanished and he realised that it had widened. Almost simultaneously, a dim light pierced the darkness around him, as if the rays of the sun had somehow filtered through the layers of rock above and reached these depths.

Surasen could now make out that he was in a tunnel carved through the rock. Whether it had been created by natural forces or the hand of man he couldn't discern, but men had certainly been at work here, for the walls and floor of the tunnel were smooth and even.

He walked cautiously through the passage, testing each step before moving forward. There was no apprehension of supernatural beings anymore; he worried more about any possible traps that men may have laid to protect this place. Perspiration dripped down his face and body, drenching his clothes. Abruptly, the tunnel ended, opening into an immense cavern which was also dimly lit by the unseen source of light. Surasen gasped in disbelief. The roof of the cavern soared above him into the darkness, untouched by the light, and he couldn't see the far walls from where he stood.

But it wasn't the size of the rocky chamber that took his breath away. It was what lay before him that rendered him speechless.

A chill ran down his spine and a strange sensation, a mix of elation and horror, swept over him. He couldn't believe his eyes.

He now understood Emperor Asoka's words of caution and his cryptic instructions.

The legends of old were true.

What lay before him in the cavern could put the world in terrible danger.

6.

Present Day Day 4

Gurgaon

Vijay and Colin sat upright as the Ford drew to a halt. It had been a long drive and they had spent much of that time speculating about who their captors were and what they wanted with them.

'One thing I know,' Vijay said in a low voice, hoping the men in front couldn't hear them, 'is that they aren't Indians. I don't know what language they speak, but it definitely isn't one of ours.'

'They were following us for a while, probably from the airport itself,' added Colin.

'It was well-orchestrated,' Vijay agreed. 'They probably planned to jump us on the highway, once we'd left habitation behind. When I got off the highway, they decided to pool their resources to stop us. But this was crazy. We could have died out there, either by smashing into the Merc or when the Ford hit us.'

'I wonder what they want from us,' Colin said soberly. 'I can't think of anything I have that could be of interest to anyone else. And the same goes for you.'

A thought struck Vijay. It made him shiver. 'D'you think they have some connection with Uncle's killers?' He voiced the thought. Despite his blindfold, he knew immediately that this resonated with Colin.

They heard the rear door of the Ford being opened and were roughly dragged out of the car and into a building, down a staircase.

Their blindfolds were removed to reveal that they were in a windowless room, dimly lit by a single fluorescent tubelight. A stale smell hung in the air suggesting that the room had been locked or unused for some time. Three chairs stood in the room and they were swiftly bound to two of the chairs.

What now? Vijay wondered as the men left the room.

After a while, four men entered the room. Two of them were armed with Uzis.

One of the new faces, a medium-sized man with a pleasant, clean-shaven face and sharp eyes pulled up the third chair and sat facing the two captives. His demeanour indicated that he was the leader of this group. He stared intently at the two prisoners for a few moments. Vijay stared back defiantly. Though he was terrified inside, he didn't want to show his fear to his captors. But he said nothing. If his hunch was right, he didn't want to get Colin and himself into any more trouble than they were in already.

'You know what I want.' The man leaned forward and looked hard at Vijay. 'Where is the key?'

'The key?' Vijay echoed blankly, unable to comprehend.

The man's face grew hard and a menacing look appeared in his eyes. 'Don't play games with me,' he warned.

'I really don't know what you are talking about,' Vijay shook his head helplessly. How was he to convince this man?

Without taking his eyes off Vijay, his interrogator gestured to one of the burly men who stepped forward and lashed out with the butt of his Uzi, catching Vijay on his left cheek. Blood now trickled down his face.

'Did that help you understand?'

Vijay hung his head and shook it again, trying to hold back his tears, born more of terror than of pain.

Their captor pulled his chair closer to Vijay, until their knees almost touched.

'Now, listen to me, Vijay Singh,' he hissed. 'I know your uncle had the key.'

At these words, Vijay's head snapped back up and he found the other man's eyes boring into him. So these men had known his uncle!

The questioner misunderstood his sudden alertness as comprehension. 'Ah, so you do know. Your uncle told you about the disk with the verse, didn't he? And he left you clues to find the key in his emails. I know he did.' A sudden urgency crept into his tone. 'Where is it? Where is the key?'

Vijay struggled to control his emotions. The terror he had felt initially had been replaced by a raw fury, as he realised that these were the men who had murdered his uncle. But he had to be careful. These men wouldn't hesitate to kill Colin and him if they sensed that something was amiss. A plan began to form in his mind.

'Fine,' he finally said, keeping his voice low so the tremor wouldn't be noticed, desperately hoping that his deception would work. 'You're right.' He could sense Colin staring at him, bewildered, but he kept his gaze on the man before him.

'Uncle did send me the emails,' he admitted. 'But I haven't been able to decipher them yet. I haven't had the time.' The fact that he was being quite truthful helped him add conviction to his tone.

'Imtiaz,' the interrogator drew his chair away and addressed the sallow-faced man standing to the side. 'You have a printout. Give it to him.' He leaned back and studied Vijay for a while. 'I believe you,' he said, finally. 'For now. You have all night to study the emails and decipher them. You better have some answers by morning. Maroosh will not be so kind to you the next time.'

The burly man who had struck Vijay grinned cruelly as the leader rose and stalked out of the room, followed by Imtiaz. The two guards remained, stony-faced and hard-eyed. After a few minutes, Imtiaz returned with a sheet of paper which he placed in Vijay's right hand.

Vijay glanced at the paper in his hand. The familiar emails stared back at him.

'Where did you get these from?' he asked Imtiaz.

'Vikram Singh's laptop. And Farooq means what he says. Better get to work and figure them out. You saw what he did to your uncle.'